Escape from the Season Finale
by Wakadooia
Summary: Great Decepticon warriors can not be defeated so easily. And Cyclonus is the greatest Decepticon warrior ever known. Besides, he had someone to check on. (So, uh, that ending was bogus and we needed more Cyclonus)
1. Escape pt 1

Rage.

Primus damned, writhing rage.

He was furious.

Even the sensor stilling cold of stasis wasn't able to temper his fire.

Cyclonus had regained enough consciousness to know he was being shoved into a stasis cell by Dropforge.

Why hadn't anyone thought to put HIM under WATCH when he returned EMPTY-HANDED!?

He felt like he could breathe fire, let it spill from his vents and burn.

Dropforge and his police mecha slipped out into the front of the transport vehicle they were loaded on and Cyclonus realised he still wasn't out cold.

The van had six stasis cells divided equally along either side of the walls connected to a generator allowing the movement of many prisoners at once.

And he could see all of it.

All bar one pod filled and active.

His arms were beginning to feel cold and he hissed angrily, the van shuddered and began moving.

"RAGH!" He yelled mindlessly, channelling his rage to something more constructive and headbutted the container glass.

Fragging. Shattered.

A light flashed in panic as the cold air spilled out of the new hole and Cyclonus reached out and wrenched his pod open.

The door sprung away and he staggered out.

"Well I've never seen someone do THAT before, and it's been a long time" A familiar voice greeted him.

His systems may have been calling for a few moments to recuperate from his rather 'ungraceful' escape but he looked down.

Dropforge.

Cyclonus had no words for him but gave him a grunt and a sneer.

"Well, ain't you lucky we still have a functioning pod for you" Dropforge flicked a wrist and his baton was in-hand and ready for action.

Cyclonus didn't need to feel his back to know his weapon was gone and instead raised his claws, there was no way this was ending any other way.

Dropeforge charged forwards, landing a quick strike on Cyclonus's knee-joint making him drop down on it and Cyclonus cursed the cold still spilling from his broken pod preventing his systems from properly functioning.

A smaller target too, he had more than enough in his favour.

But Cyclonus was a warrior himself and had Dropforge under his control for long enough.

Sure enough, the little detective dropped on his back, pede's sharply jamming into his left side, readying to strike the back of his helm and force him to reboot.

Reaching up Cyclonus grabbed the first bit of foreign metal he felt and wrenched it from his back.

An angry startled grunt keyed him in on his success and he swung Dropforge into the ground before him.

It wasn't the most stable hold but Cyclonus had him by the baton-wielding hand.

"Sir!" A worried voice and the sound of movement came from up front.

"Keep driving!" Dropforge yelled, "We'll need the backup!"

"All for little old me?" Cyclonus sneered, before yelping as Dropforge kicked him in the face plates he wobbled upright with his free hand going to his face as it stung.

Dropforge dangled from his hand but kicked again, walloping him in the abdominal plates and Cyclonus wheezed staggering back.

He was not stupid however and despite Dropforge kicking him again making him stumble back again, slipping and wobbling into Skyjack's pod he was not going to let go.

Letting go meant letting him regain full mobility and use of his baton again.

Dropforge swung out again and kicked him in the chin and Cyclonus growled and stretched his arm out as far as he could distancing himself from the angry Mini.

Dropforge was right about one thing, he would be overpowered if they got their backup.

Better to end this as quick as possible.

Cyclonus yelped again as Dropforge punched his elbow joint and his arm twisted involuntarily.

He almost loosened his grip.

Cyclonus spun on the spot and put his arm out again, Dropforge was swung into Treadshock's pod and the police mecha grunted, momentarily stunned.

Quick as possible.

Cyclonus didn't let him move again but threw him to the ground, feeling his wrist gears creak uncomfortably as the Mini-con twisted in his unyielding grasp.

Crude but effective he did it again and swung the officer into the wall again and again.

By this point, the prison transporter must've been rocking from side to side.

He could, however, feel it's engine vibrate as it picked up speed.

Looking around the room he had to find a way to stop it.

The ceiling.

Like a big blue button of hit-here-for-freedom, a circular generator was planted squarely in the middle of the transporters roof with tubes leading out to the individual pods powering them and providing the stasis gases.

"NNRAH!" He almost wished he could've made some kind of quip but that brief pang of annoyance was more than made up for as Dropforge screamed.

His back connected to the softly glowing generator and was quickly engulfed in arcs of electricity dropping limply to the floor as Cyclonus let go leaving all the charge for the Autobot.

The flashing alarm lights faltered as did every other electronic thing in the van, the six pods began leaking gas from a vent on their sides.

Cyclonus stomped on Dropforge's back. Just to make sure.

"Sir! What's going on back there!?" The mecha from the front queried again.

There was a cue to leave.

The pod by the door though.

Cyberwarp.

There was a backup generator aboard to prevent the pods from fully deactivating and potentially releasing up to six dangerous prisoners but in the time it took for it to rectify the the problems caused by the main one's absence any captive would be awake.

At least for a while.

Her optics fluttered and shifted, a faint light bringing them back online.

They focused in and out until a relatively stable image was transferred to her processor.

The look of abject horror that washed over her face when she realised what had happened was glorious.

Taking the time to ensure she really revelled in her grievous error Cyclonus made a point of giving her his best smile, the one that brought out his optics and fangs, before waving slowly at her.

"Goodbye weak link" He hissed hoping she could hear.

Making sure to save her horrified expression in his memory banks he turned away, leaving her to her stasis as the backup generator picked up the slack.

Grabbing at the transporters storage doors, it took a small grunt of effort but he yanked it from its grounding, peeling the back of the transporter open.

Freedom.

With a smile, he jumped out of the speeding vehicle and transformed sailing into the air.


	2. Escape pt 2

He was beaten and he was damaged but he got out.

As someone who prized loyalty, there was an undeniable pang of guilt for leaving his team behind regardless of what he thought of them or their actions.

Well, guilt for leaving MOST of them.

Others should take their punishment and he'll relish knowing they're suffering.

This was more important to him, however.

FAR more important.

He wasn't sure on how long he had been out for, it was certainly a different point in the current solar cycle than it was when he was taken in; yet also hadn't been long enough for him to have been put away properly, but it didn't matter.

His engine's strained and whined at him as his sleek form cut through the sky effortlessly despite the rough time it'd had.

A few mecha on the streets below saw him and gasped, all too aware of what had been going on.

Irrelevant.

He had to get home.

It was a burning desperate desire, that made the wind around him feel like ice-cold blades cutting at his exterior.

No doubt by now they'd scoured their data and public records, zeroing in on their personal living spaces, raiding them for any Decepticon-related news.

Not when they got to his home they wouldn't.

They'd get far more than they bargained for there.

It was true, easily spotting it from far away Cyclonus could already see groups of police mecha surrounding his home.

And a few familiar faces.

Anger and panic overthrew him, he had to do something.

They had to get away.

The heat and rush of overpowering emotions prickled at his entire body as he pinpointed his target.

Head of the group trying to get into his home.

Big, red and blue.

An easy target.

Roaring, Cyclonus felt flames spill from his left side at his sudden, forced speed boost.

He got a quick glimpse of surprise from his new 'landing spot' as the Autobot spotted him far too late.

A satisfying, grunting gasp of shock managed to just reach his audials as he rammed his nosecone into the Prime's abdominal plates.

The Autobot leader skidding backwards until Cyclonus had him pushed into a wall, but he wasn't leader for nothing.

Optimus grabbed him in return, pressing on already beaten joints and panels, holding him still as if readying him for the surrounding police mecha no doubt baying for a chance to get at him.

Cyclonus only revved his engines more and tried to ram the Autobot again from close range, the tip of his jet form was sharp and he knew he was tearing at the Prime's plating.

However before any damage could be done; hot fluid briefly trickled down his left side before his engine coughed out an explosion.

Cyclonus grunted; A fuel line must've bust.

Cyclonus shuddered at the pain throbbing through him from it, cursing himself for over-exerting himself.

But he had to.

He must.

It was, however, just the distraction he needed, the sudden burst dislodged Optimus's grasp and made the police mecha flinch away from him.

Wrenching away from the Autobot, Cyclonus swung up into the air before coming back down to his house.

There was a very thin alleyway between his home and a neighbouring building, narrow enough that none of the Autobots had gone down it, merely guarded each end.

Yet it had an escape route.

He knew what he'd been doing was dangerous and this might've happened.

He'd only wished it'd happened differently.

The wall here had a thin part, easy for any mecha strong enough to burst through and escape.

Like a secret door but not some 'high tech' nonsense leading to a tunnel or something, just a simple breakable wall.

His jet form easily made the gap of the alleyway on its side and while it may have been an awkward turn he burst through his own walls, transforming and flopping onto the resulting rubble.

He was tired.

He was beaten.

The engine on his left side a source of horrible pain.

But he was home.

It was warm, it was nice.

It was comforting.

A happy place.

He smiled as he took in the familiar colours of his walls and ceilings, designed to fit tastes and needs. The place he always returned to at the end of every cycle.

A heavy relieved sigh escaping him and almost taking away his stress and troubles with it.

There was even a photograph or two on the walls, he saw himself in them.

Not his actual self but the blue facade he'd worn for such a long time.

But he was smiling in them, surrounded by other smiling faces.

It was relaxing.

It had everything he ever wanted.

It had the only thing he wanted.

"DON'T FALL ASLEEP!" A voice pierced through his haze.

The only thing he ever wanted was looking at him, distraught.

Being home again had almost lulled him to recharge but of course; once more, his trusted other had come to get him out of his mess.

Faceplates framed by purple stood by the wall they had so carefully decorated together.

His own blue facade had been shed long ago, no longer needed in the current situation.

It was like he'd just come home from another day working, except he hadn't.

"Galvatron!" He gasped jolting upright, dust and debris falling from him.

The aforementioned mech smiled at him, desperate but happy. Yet no words of greeting left him, thumps at the door prompted him to run over and lob something out the window.

Cyclonus knew what it was, a deliberately designed smoke-bomb.

It caused the right amount of panic as he could hear the police mecha scatter as the word "GRENADE" was yelled.

Galvatron was already heading to the hole Cyclonus made his entrance.

"C'mon dear, we have to go!" He pleaded.

Cyclonus looked at him.

He was frightened, he'd feared this happening from the start.

He'd always feared never getting out of it alive, he feared making a promise he couldn't keep.

The same promise he made every morning as he left.

"One moment! Please!" Cyclonus begged in return before bolting into the adjacent room.

The room where they prepared their Energon and fuel had a wobbly panel on the floor.

"Haha we've been meaning to remove it, buuuut it does add a bit of charm to the place guess we're used to it!"

He remembered laughing, joking about it when Dropforge had come to his abode before their meeting under more pleasant circumstances.

The Mini-con had smiled at him as he wrapped an arm around Galvatron's shoulder struts and smiled back at the police mecha.

Suspicion averted.

But now, he ripped it from the floor and pulled out a safe. A small clunky thing with a manual lock on the door, another safeguard against those who'd find it; expecting a digital lock and no doubt not having enough experience to figure a way around this type of ancient thing.

They needed this.

They really needed this.

Thumping and a yell brought his attention back to reality.

The forces outside had already overcome their ruse and had returned to trying to beat down their armoured walls, yelling for their surrender.

Back into the initial room, Galvatron had an officer on the ground and another was backing away from the cannon strapped to Galvatron's arm.

Yet more were trying to slip in.

"DROP YOUR WEAPON!"

A different voice than the monotonous, uninspired, repetitive tone of the usual police mecha cut through the commotion.

Safe in hand Cyclonus ran back to see a red and black femme standing with dual pistols aimed at Galvatron, her frame easily slender enough to have slipped through the small alley.

With the weapons aimed at him, Galvatron was frozen trying to assess how good her aim and reaction time would be if he so much as tried to get a shot in first.

Growling Cyclonus felt his vents hitch.

When did he dent them like that?

Rushing forwards Cyclonus swung the safe around, the heavy ungainly object swinging in a sloppy arc but it was all he needed.

It crumpled into the femme's head, knocking the Autobot into - and through - the wall.

A few officers ran to her aid but Cyclonus saw the door on the little safe buckle and struggle to stay shut.

Damn.

Broken.

It was ancient and good against those with no experience of old locks but it had it's faults too, he'd just hoped it would've lasted longer.

"Grab onto me!" Cyclonus transformed, taking the safe into himself before the damaged lock slipped open.

Galvatron looked at him panicked, he still had officers around him.

They had little to lose right now.

A window smashed and the external forces had broken in at the front, Galvatron made a soft keening noise as he looked around quickly trying to spot the enemy's new opening.

Galvatron grabbed the officer he had downed, a young mecha with an unsightly dent now covering a portion of his face and a jaw-joint that was no doubt out of place now.

With officer in-hand Galvatron swung the poor thing around using him to topple the police by him, leaving him with an opening to leap over them and grab onto familiar wings.

Without a moment to lose Cyclonus blasted out of the hole in the wall, and twisted upwards, they're going to go as high as possible.


	3. Escape pt 3

"Your engine!" Galvatron wailed as he clung to Cyclonus's jet form, worried hands reaching out and placing comforting pressure on the failing thing as it struggled to help the lop-sided ascent into the sky.

"I'm sorry, you're going to have to help" He gasped back.

He didn't need to look back at him, he could picture Galvatrons wide optics looking at him with fearful concern.

Silent, he could feel the other mecha shift, placing more of his weight on the left side before aiming his cannon backwards and firing, the lasting force of energy it produced doubled as a less-effective booster jet.

Physically unable to climb any higher, certainly not in his current condition, Cyclonus readjusted himself for a new location.

They had to get there fast.

He knew the police would send their Seeker officers after him, and that blasted Prime could fly too.

They were no doubt already being pursued.

"I'm sorry" He gasped, the jarring calm of the current moment bringing words from his Spark.

"Cyclonus…"

"I'm so sorry!"

"Cyclonus…"

"I promised!"

"Cy-"

"I promised I'd come back to you!" The interruptions stopped "I knew they'd probably get to me one day, I knew it'd be soon but I still did it! I thought not being there would just be an admission of guilt! I had to! I HAD to be there! I'm so sorry!" He choked "I promised I wouldn't get caught… I promised I'd come back to you…"

His Spark thrummed with emotion and panic.

He DID know something like this would happen one day.

But…

Not now, not like this...

"But… You did" Galvatron was quiet, voice almost as fleeting as the wind that whistled past them.

"I nearly… I nearly didn't…" Cyclonus barely held back a sob, the ice-cold whistling of the wind felt more like a swan song to him right now.

"STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW!" A sizzle of heat sailed past Cyclonus's right engine.

"Dammit! They caught up!" Galvatron hissed as several shapes started getting closer.

Another energy shot rang out to their right side.

The bastards were trying to take out his other engine.

Damn it! They knew! He let them see a weakness and the foul, pompous excuse of an Autobot justice system was homing in on it like fly-bots to an open wound.

"Hold on Sweetspark!" Galvatron grabbed onto him sharply and Cyclonus hissed as he unintentionally pinched into previously made dents and scratches ignoring the untimely use of such a nickname.

His weight shifted and suddenly Galvatron was sitting in the middle of his jet form and Cyclonus could feel his path falter as his weak left side couldn't keep up with the right.

His rear could feel the surge of heat as Galvatron fired his weapon, the knockback pushing Cyclonus forwards several feet, but it worked, distantly there were a few yells.

Pained ones.

And an explosion?

Whatever it didn't matter they had to go.

Now.

Given their direction, he was sure a few of the quick-witted Autobots had figured out their destination.

The spaceport, where several ships designed for interstellar travel sat, waiting for their owners to come get them.

There'd be an ambush.

They'd die.

He could barely handle being conscious anymore and Galvatron…

Oh, Galvatron how he wished he wasn't involved in this mess, free and happy rather than on the run.

He may be screaming insults and firing his weapon at those still following him but he was still one mech.

A very strong, powerful… agile mech he may be but still.

He knew, however.

He knew.

Just past the port.

A little further, come on.

A yard full of parts for spacecraft, easily accessible for those who wanted a quick fix to their ship rather than waiting around.

THAT'S where his ship was kept, paint made it look useless, even for its parts. Yet it was just as good as any of them, faster even.

Hidden away just for them, just in case.

That's all that was needed.

He praised Primus for it being there and not in a more obvious place.

'Thank you Scourge' He mentally hummed remembering his friend who suggested the idea.

A tracker and a hunter he knew it'd be one of the better places to hide a getaway vehicle.

He hoped his friend was smart enough to have ditched the place already and slip away into the shadows.

The yard was in sight and he gave up.

His engines outright stopped and Galvatron yelped in surprise as Cyclonus nose-dived into the edge of the yard, crumpling into a pile of fuel lines.

"Cyclonus!" Were his audials breaking down on him?

Popping out into his bipedal form he had a bleary view of the sky and the smoke trail his damaged engine left in it as he hugged the safe tightly.

Damn it, they'll know where we are.

Hands roughly yanked at his shoulders.

"Cyclonus! Please! We're so close! We have to go!"

His servo's and pede's were wobbling and shaking, he almost couldn't feel the ground beneath him, he must've mumbled something he was sure of it.

He said, no, pleaded something but his swimming processor hardly remembered talking

"We're leaving, TOGETHER!" was yelled back at him, with a voice shaking with emotion.

Cyclonus wheezed as he was wrenched from the floor and onto Galvatron's back, one arm roughly pulled from the safe and wrapped around the mech's front, clamping the Seeker to him.

He could hear air vents whining heavily as their owner ran, ignoring all calls to stop and cool down. The safe was safely tucked under one arm as he was shaken up and down with long heavy strides.

Cyclonus squeezed Galvatron, burying his face into the crook of his neck.

The change in temperature and air felt most jarring as Galvatron barrelled into their escape ship.

His fingers prized Cyclonus's hand from him and thus Cyclonus himself as he fell to the floor, too tired to argue.

Their little ruse was enough to have their pursuers confused for a short while, but the fliers had regrouped and followed them a bit quicker than the ground forces waiting at the port.

"DO NOT TAKE OFF! SURRENDER YOURSELVES TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW!"

One of the buggers had a microphone.

Galvatron didn't care, he just knew he had an injured Cyclonus and no chance of freedom - or being together again - if he did surrender.

His flight skills left something to be desired but he yanked on the controls and the ship lurched into action.

It jerked forwards a little almost as if it was going to ram straight into the floor but quickly pulled back again, leaving the ground and retracting all landing gear.

It was slow, to begin with, it had not flown for a while; it had not needed to, and the engines were taking a while to warm up.

Galvatron slammed his fists on the controls and screamed at no one.

It was too slow, he wanted, no, needed to be away from here.

He continued to pull and yank at the controls as if physically forcing the ship to move quicker than it could manage, which wasn't really something he could do.

But by Primus, he was going to continue shaking this ship until he forced some kind of extra action out of it.

Thunk-Ktink-Takka-tak-tak

The ship was gaining altitude but the flying police mecha had already been in the air and began firing their weapons, while the ground troops called in a backup ship to chase them down.

A control panel buzzed and sparked in protest as the ship's defences were nowhere near ready and the barrage of weapon fire continued at a steady rate.

Galvatron slammed his fists on the control panel again. This damn thing was designed for evasion and speed, not standing and fighting.

He wanted to blast those cowards out of the sky!.

He'd have to do the next best thing.

Angling the ship upwards he swung the craft around, it's jets whooshing in front of the flying police mecha. Slamming down on the engine boost the jets spat up a powerful burst of energy, propelling the ship into the sky at high speeds and preventing Galvatron from savouring any damage the burst may have done as he grabbed onto his chair, stabilising himself as the ship lurched sharply from the sudden boost.

The boost was long lasting, stars blurred slightly as Galvatron was forced back into his seat; the small ship not designed to make an escape comfortable or luxurious, but effective.

A thump and groan behind him reminded him of Cyclonus having rolled aimlessly on the floor allowing the ships pull to take him wherever.

This was not the proud Decepticon he knew.

Forcing aside his fears for a while Galvatron pushed the controls again, the blur of the stars intensified into a mangled smudge as the ship boosted again at its maximum speed.

The hull shook and shuddered as the ship reached its threshold and was forced to maintain it as Galvatron refused to let go of the controls, holding them down, wanting to distance themselves from Cybertron as best he could.


	4. Self-installation

Something shuffled behind him

"Hnnn dehn" It groaned, Galvatron tried turning his head in the chair but he was held down tight by their speed, "Sluh dawn… Sthep!"

Clicking the voice and the strained words together Galvatron threw his hands in the air and released the ship's controls.

Out in the vacuum of Space, the ship continues to barrel forwards at high speeds but as the engine stopped fuelling their mad escape it began to stabilise, power diverting itself back to other sectors of the craft.

The gravitational forces lulled and the artificial gravity strengthened, the ship almost felt normal again.

A loud crash of a thump caused Galvatron to swivel his chair around.

At the far end of the room, Cyclonus fell from the wall he had previously been 'stuck' to, face down and wheezing he managed a tired, dry laugh.

"Knew… we'd get away" He looked up, but any kind of motion he tried to do was shaky like a newly crafted protoform unable to lift and control its new functions.

"Like slag you did" Galvatron sighed, well aware he was not hiding his own emotions as his voice cracked.

Pushing up from the chair the change in gravity and pressure took him off guard and walking in a straight line became a temporary impossibility as he swerved his way over.

"Come on, this thing does have a medical bay" Galvatron put out a servo, offering to help Cyclonus up before realising his mistake and scooping up his fellow Decepticon into his arms.

The medical bay was not a medical bay so to speak.

More a single berth-like slab with medical supplies in a box nearby.

This ship was not designed for long-term living, just for escaping.

With a huff Galvatron plonked Cyclonus down on the slab and pushed him onto his right side, holding his damaged left side up in the air for better viewing.

"Oh dear, I'm not a medic y'know" He scowled at the damage "This is gonna be a scrap and a half to fix! Probably have to pray to Primus that your self-repair systems can handle more than they probably can!"

The engine and thruster had been ripped apart via an explosion, most likely from a burst fuel line Galvatron guessed. The exposed fuel and continued use of the engine had burned the entire area leaving his lovely lavender plates streaked with hot black smears and a few parts within the engine almost looked melted together.

"Sorry, I do stress you out quite a bit don't I?" Cyclonus's voice module had reconfigured itself and functioned normally again.

"You always do, you colossal rust-stain" Galvatron sighed, removing his arms from the damaged area and placing them upon a tired dented helm, rubbing up and down from it's base to the tip of its horns.

Cyclonus leaned into the new touch, only slightly chuckling at his partner's gentle mocking.

Looking down Cyclonus realised he still held onto the safe.

It was his turn to sigh.

Placing it on the slab next to him, he pulled himself upright into a seated position and swung his pede's over the edge.

"Galvatron…" He began, but Galvatron leaned back and tutted.

"Sit back down" He commanded, "I hadn't even started trying to fix you!"

"We don't have much anaesthetic on board…" Cyclonus mumbled "So I'm really sorry about this, but it's better to be done sooner than later. Definitely sooner now we're free for the time being"

"Cyclonus…"

"I don't want to risk it and have nothing on our side when they find us… Given everything, I doubt they're just going to leave it like that…" Cyclonus grabbed Galvatron's shoulder strut and gave him a look.

He was right, they wouldn't just let the lead guy of their foes just strut away.

"So I'm sorry, I'm just conserving the anaesthetic, okay?" Cyclonus repeated.

"Oh, okay?" Galvatron managed a confused glance before he was knocked unconscious.

Cyclonus gripped his own throbbing fist both from the sharp pain of punching Galvatron square in the face and from the regret of doing such an action to one of such emotional significance.

"I'm really sorry" He squeaked more to himself now.

Slipping off the medical slab Cyclonus swapped places with Galvatron bringing the other mech to the table and resting him carefully on his back.

Now he could spare the little bit of anaesthetic to ensure it went by quicker.

Syringing a tiny portion of what they did have into Galvatron's chest he pried his plating open and opened up parts of Galvatron's internal structure until he was by the Spark housing.

It was sealed up tight, tighter than usual, probably reacting to the stress of the day and exposure, but it was fine he didn't need to access the spark.

Although seeing the light of Galvatron's spark again felt like his deepest wish right now.

He touched up the surrounding area with a little more anaesthetic to make sure it wasn't causing too much trouble before opening up the wonky safe.

Combiner software.

A different kind than the one he had been using.

It was more focused and localised, instead of raw power and many together it was the kind that melded two, and only two, together.

Caressing the glowing bit of kit between his digits Cyclonus stared thoughtfully at it for a few minutes in many ways it seemed more like a source of their troubles rather than a possible out.

Either way, combining would be invaluable to them in the long run and he put it in, carefully attaching wires and moving other circuitry around until the thing was settled in.

Galvatron's own body enveloped the software in wires and cables as his systems finished what Cyclonus had started and begun processing the new data.

Cyclonus couldn't help but continue to watch, a part of him worried Galvatrons systems may reject it, but it was firmly held within Galvatrons core systems now and was being processed and installed throughout his form.

With a gentle self-reassuring sigh, Cyclonus closed up Galvatron's internal structure and chassis, allowing it to finish up.

Now was the hard part.

He mentally apologised again as he removed the unconscious Galvatron from the slab and put him on the floor, he'd move him to the actual, tiny berth-room on board but he was running on near empty himself and simply could not gather the energy right now.

It also meant he simply could not afford to use anaesthetic.

Biting his lip plates he opened his own chassis, chest plates swinging open as his internal structure was exposed.

Now it was going to hurt.

Wrapping his claws his claws around his internal structures his systems panicked and flooded him with notifications as he painfully pried the plating away to expose his own internals.

The room became bathed in a throbbing light as his spark was exposed.

Cyclonus tensed up and shuddered as the cold air brushed his spark and tickled at his pained exposed internal systems, all still screaming notifications at his processor.

There were internal systems for a reason, they weren't meant to be exposed!.

"Hmmmmmmnnnnnnn-nuuh" He was alone, he was allowed to mutter in worry.

Gently putting the flat of his digits down on his internals, making sure to avoid his own claws Cyclonus touched around within himself gently until the familiar feel of installed software reached his sensors.

By Primus, this was hurting.

Allowing the use of his claws again Cyclonus scratched at the combiner software, claw-tips sliding under wires and pushing into the software casing eliciting hisses and grunts from him as began shaking it gently; slowly but surely inching it out of his core systems.

The big clunky bit of software popped out and Cyclonus made a vague attempt at stifling the squeak he made as his entire body shuddered again and rippled with a small pulse of energy as his systems changed at its removal.

By this point, Cyclonus was forcing his head back into the slab angrily hissing through gritted denta as he blindly felt around for the replacement software.

Clumsily pulling it out of the safe and ignoring the battered box loudly crashing to the floor he held the thing up in front of him.

At this point however his hand was nowhere near stable which didn't help the fact he was pretty much picking up three separate images of it as his bleary optics refused to focus.

Quickly, before he rebooted.

Unceremoniously and ungracefully he rammed the new bit of kit into his body, hardly taking stock of where it went or if it was being taken in properly - he could hopefully check that out later - before slamming his internal casing and outer chassis shut as fuzzy darkness swept over his optics.


	5. Last Stop

His systems burned and tingled.

The unsatisfactory recharge was unavoidable at his energy level but it wasn't enough to really do him good.

He could feel a joint or two pop as he pushed himself upright.

The small dingy walls of his own makeshift med bay greeted him.

Cyclonus sighed. An action that made his body feel disconnected from his own outer plating in the most bizarre and slightly painful sensation he'd felt for a while.

Feeling a point in his neck pop too Cyclonus managed a stiff look around.

Galvatron was still on the floor only now he too was merely recharging rather than being unconscious.

Cyclonus couldn't help but smile, somehow Galvatron had managed to wrap himself around the stand the slab stood upon, clinging to it in his recharge.

After everything, it was such a soothing pleasant sight.

The ship shuddered and wobbled making Cyclonus feel his spark sink.

They were still on the run.

His body made an audible groan and creak when he forced himself off the slab and began hobbling over to the piloting room, hoping against all hope they weren't already tethered between a few Autobot ships being dragged back to Cybertron.

As the door to the pilot's room opened Cyclonus's optics were assaulted by a furious orange light.

The ship was surrounded by flames and the shuddering was only as gentle as it was due to the efforts of an overtaxed, failing gravity field.

Panic flooding his systems Cyclonus leapt into the pilots seat the controls were flashing and flickering in and out of life.

The Autopilot.

Galvatron forgot to put the fragging autopilot on!.

Cyclonus let out a small mangled screech, possibly from anger, possibly from panic but it escaped his vocals anyway.

The ship had been sailing through space at high speeds with no direction at all and had now got caught in a planet's gravitational field destined to crash into its surface unless Cyclonus managed something.

Cyclonus grabbed the controls and pulled back trying to stabilise the ship but that was not what happened.

Not at all.

With the sudden attempt at changing its current condition, the ship broke unable to fight against the forces dragging it down planetside.

The console shattered.

Wires, sparks and shards of glass and metal spilled out in copious amounts, spreading across the ship's controls until all of them were gone.

Everything failed and the lights popped. The ship's gravity failed and the turbulence was intense as Cyclonus had to abandon everything and cling to the chair's back as he was thrown out the seat.

From elsewhere he could hear a startled cry as Galvatron suddenly came online, being thrown around the room he was in.

Cyclonus looked out the window.

It was nothing but orange fire licking at the ship's exterior with great enthusiasm.

The viewing windows glass began to crack letting thin tendrils of flame seep in before Cyclonus's vision once again went black as the ship met the ground with an almighty crash.


	6. Scream

He was itchy now.

Very itchy, grains of something invaded his open joints and damaged areas.

Snapping awake and upright Cyclonus watched as golden sands were kicked up in arcs around him as his limbs flailed.

Giving his optics time to adjust to this planet's new atmosphere and light, the disgusting scent of burnt metal poked at his olfactory sensors and Cyclonus panicked.

Around him lay broken chunks and strips of his destroyed ship having broken up in entry and the force of the ground split it like an Autobot's cranial chamber.

The parts had been burnt and bent practically beyond use.

The only bonus was Cyclonus's old combiner software lay shattered next to an orange dusty rock no longer able to act as evidence against him, proof of his past or a locator.

Standing up on wobbly feet Cyclonus took a tentative step forwards.

The grainy surface he stood upon crunched under his pede and Cyclonus winced.

It was so strange.

So alien.

It felt soft as if it should give way but it compacted under his weight and was perfectly stable for him.

The main, central body of the ship was relatively in one piece, the front part that he was in was not.

But he knew he was still functioning right now.

He staggered towards it, great holes torn in its sides and bits of walls dangling from twisted strips of charred metal.

It assaulted his sensors in the most unpleasant ways as he took a careful look at the jagged lumps that once made up the ship's exterior before slowly reaching out to touch it.

Smooth, but also a bit grainy and slightly warm either from this planets orbiting sun or heat still withheld from the crash.

Quietly he pulled himself up, there was a hole he could climb into easily and be directly by the 'med bay'.

"Galv-ARGH" The plan WAS to pull himself up, call to Galvatron, find him and go.

Instead, as he pulled himself upwards mid-call his blasted left side set on fire.

Or at least felt that it was, as pistons popped and a wire or two snapped before failing, causing Cyclonus further insult as he dropped to the ground.

The grainy surface of the planet was kicked up in dusty clouds as Cyclonus vented, hard. His systems forcing out heavy gusts of cycled air as if trying to smother the blearing pain notifications and throbbing agony from his abused left side.

When that wasn't working quick enough Cyclonus found himself rolling from side to side on the floor trying to distract his systems from pain and his stressed Energon levels.

Recharging helped but it sure as hell wasn't Energon.

Cyclonus flopped onto his back and arched his body from the ground, grunting and hissing through grit denta before flopping back down as the pain subsided, no doubt helped by him finally lying still rather than provoking it with further motion.

So that was it, pathetically lying on the ground staring at the blue expanse of this worlds sky.

Cyclonus squinted as the sky became dusted with clouds and in turn against their even paler backdrop the sky held a light peppering of dark specs flying around in erratic patterns.

But mostly around him in a curious circle.

Like filthy aerial scavengers.

Cyclonus glared at them and hissed.

Rolling onto his right side he used the better functioning side to get himself to his knees and after pushing off from a chunk of his ships hull he was on his pedes.

Placing a disgruntled hand above his optics Cyclonus squinted upwards, the light shielding from this planets sun wasn't necessary, but trying not to strain anymore of his systems was a priority.

One of the specks emitted a high pitched cry and the Decepticon's optics focused in on the creatures.

Small, organic, coated in some kind of soft, not-armour like substance.

Conclusion; disgusting.

His vision multiplied again as his optics zoned out and everything blurred and Cyclonus quickly bent over rubbing at his face as if manually resetting his visual sensors.

With a grumble, Cyclonus remained looking to the ground as he focused on getting a reading from his, stronger internal sensors in an attempt to pinpoint his galactic location.

It was slow and bleary.

Sucking up more energy than he really should spare.

But the gravitational situation of the planet and the pull of other celestial bodies were being built into a set of data to be matched up against his records for identification.

This planet had two others before it when it came in galactic positioning and had one small moon orbiting it as compared to Cybertron's two.

The atmospheric composition and density were ringing bells in his head too. All of the data was familiar.

The organic above him squawked again.

Oh.

No.

Oh no.

Not this place again.

Fate and irony were not that cruel.

More readings corresponded with data he had.

No.

Cyclonus could feel himself mentally twisting in on himself as if the force of his own disgust was threatening to twist his tanks to an unrecognisable degree.

Frag no.

Earth?

EARTH?

THIS PLANET? OUT OF EVERYTHING, THEY COULD HAVE PASSED.

THIS.

PLANET?.

Cyclonus's knees buckled and he was knelt over in moments.

Hand in the sand, he grabbed seeping handfuls of the stuff.

"AAAAAAAAAAGH" He screamed at the ground, flinging great armfuls of the grainy substance in the air as he swung his arms from side to side before switching to pounding the floor.

He didn't stop until his digits hurt and his wrist-gears creaked at him, even then he was slow to stop.

He was full of blinding rage and intent to take it out on the planet in any way he can, punching and scratching at the ground as if causing physical damage to it.

"Nnnnn… NNNNNNNN" He ignored his pain alerts and punched the ground again several more times.

The bird fled and the sky seemed to shudder as Cyclonus flung his head back and screamed.

An aimless, furious, emotion-laced bellowing scream that pierced the air and shattered the desert's blistering stillness.

He couldn't stop, he didn't stop.

No one even understood his sheer fury right now.

His throat and vocal unit hissed and burned as his voice wavered, cracking and straining as he ran his oral cavity dry and blistered.

He was still screaming internally as his vocal unit shut down and he fell face first into the sand slipping away into a rather depressed recharge.


	7. Stranger in the Desert

The scream was the final clue.

Reaching the peak of a sandy hill the human looked over the wreckage, hands shielding his eyes from the deliriously bright sun.

It crashed far out into the desert, bonus number one.

Certain connections he had, bonus number two.

Should be easy to get this cleared up before some nutjob found it and did whatever.

The body was easy to see.

Not too far away from a more intact section of the destroyed craft, it was face down in the sand and unmoving.

It had obvious damages on its body, presumably from the crash. The rest of it stood out, that shade of lavender-ish purple stuck out like a sore thumb against the orange-yellows of the sand.

Approaching the form he took precautions.

It could be a Decepticon, not that he'd seen one for a while but that was no reason to doubt.

Carefully reaching out towards it the human put a hand on one of the horns of the unconscious mecha.

Or were they antennae?

It didn't react, though he had no idea for how long this character had been out, the scream had merely alerted him to survivors of the crash.

He'd monitored it for a while, there was a distance trace of Energon heading towards Earth, from the old days he'd kept monitors and systems to check out possible traces of allies… and friends.

So he'd known in advance.

Regardless of everything else, moving this unconscious visitor was the top priority.

Just because it was down in the backend of nowhere didn't mean it wasn't going to be discovered.

Reaching into his pocket the man pulled out a phone and dialled a rarely used number.

"Hello? Jasper rentals? Yes, Hiiii I have a bit of an odd request for you. I need to transport some large, heavy and quite sensitive equipment across the desert, do you have a vehicle that could meet this specification?" The person on the other end stammered as he searched through the dealership's database before listing off potential vehicles, "I'll take two, immediately I'm coming over now to pick them up, yes, for one night right now, yes? It's Rafael Esquivel, I'll bring a friend"

Raf smiled as he closed off that call before opening another.

"Hello Jack, can you meet me at the Jasper car rentals? Kind of an emergency, one we're gonna have to dig up Fowler's number for..."

While nothing moved at the crashed ship, elsewhere in a nearby town two friends met up.

Neither could talk about what they were heading out for but they shelled out the cash for two big vehicles before stopping off at Raf's place for chains.

Big ones.

Only as the two drove the vehicles out of Jasper did they roll down the window's and talk.

"So what's going on?" Jack rested his elbow on the window, only casting the mousey haired man a side glance as they turned the vehicles off-road.

"Found an unconscious Cybertronian in the desert" Raf explained also keeping his focus on the landscape before him rather than his friend.

"It's been so long since we've seen any of them… Though let's be honest they did come back to Earth at some point before now" Jack patted the side of the truck as if contemplating his statement.

"For all we know that could have been an entirely different set of Autobots… Or Decepticons… I mean, if it were our friends we would've heard something, I hope" Raf frowned a little, naturally while keeping an eye out for the potential return of his friends he'd got wind of strange happenings and unusual energy around a place called Crown City.

"I'll be honest, after all this time I thought we wouldn't see them again, must be pretty damn busy on their world after all"

"Yeah, Must be… We're here"

"I can see that, it's not exactly subtle, I can see the urgency"

The truck's rolled to a stop by the wreckage of the craft as it was now Jack's turn to survey the misshapen chunks of metal strewn about the place.

"Bring the truck round here" Raf motioned before Jack had the chance to get out of the vehicle, giving him a few moments to get it's engine back online before driving over to the unconscious character.

"Oh gee, I can see why you wanted two trucks for this one" Now Jack had gotten out the cab and approached the large lavender body, "Hey, it's got horns or rabbit ears who is this guy?"

"Not a clue" Raf went to collect the chains, thicker than his arm and far heavier he had to drag them over to Jack "Kinda why I want to move him, just in case, could you imagine if some conspiracy theorist found this and this guy IS a Decepticon?"

Jack nodded and helped Raf with the chain.

One fed under and looped around each shoulder before being secured to the truck.

It was crude but it worked.

Just.

The sand combined with the extra weight really threw the trucks and it took a few tries to get moving.

"Where to?" Jack peered at Raf as he once again tried to gauge the distance between their vehicles and keep them level.

"Remember that base the Autobots moved into after the first one was destroyed? Well, we're going there, it's been abandoned since the Autobots left" Raf nodded looking back down at his phone and the GPS he'd opened on it.

"And if this guy IS a Decepticon? What then?"

"That's why we're alerting Fowler just in case"

"Are you sure about that? Not that I'm doubting the guy but he's practically retired and not to mention it's not like our military handled 'cons on their own" concern seeped through Jack's voice.

"Jack. Look at the guy. I doubt he'd be able to fight a poodle in that state..."

Jack made a concerned noise but nodded, Raf was the one with the technical know-how but you didn't need a genius to know the blown engine on it's back was bad.

Behind them, their unwilling passenger remained deep in a self-prompted stasis, etching a huge groove into the ground as he was dragged along, sand scratching at his chassis and stripping off chunks of paint.

And insignias.

Hangar E had been abandoned for a while.

The dusty generators and power source took more than enough time to bring online, but not too long if you happened to have seen alien tech before and enjoyed it as the memories came flooding back.

The transmission shield also worked brilliantly, as certain rousing entities discovered when parts of their sensors failed to activate properly.

Cyclonus groaned painfully and pitifully, clutching his aching helm with equally aching hands.

His respiration unit immediately sputtered and heaved, coughing up plumes of sand as Cyclonus felt himself heave and spit out sand-filled globs of oral lubricant.

Wincing and wiping his faceplates Cyclonus could only shudder at the taste of the Earthen substance invading his sensors.

Bleary optics focused in on his surroundings.

He'd been moved.

Some crude metal structure, built with inexperience by organic hands.

It was disturbing to even be in a place for these wretched bipeds, but the more disturbing thing was yet to come as he focused in on bits of Cybertronian tech.

Autobots.

Or at least they'd been here.

Panic beat as his spark as he stood up and looked around the place, it at least seemed abandoned, for now, the dust had coated most surfaces in here and the windows were dirty.

"Hello?"

"GAH" Cyclonus spun on the spot, arms briefly raising as if a weapon would magically manifest for his use but instead his hands waved uselessly for a moment as he staggered about for a few minutes.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you" When Cyclonus settled down and pinpointed the voice it belonged to a simple human.

Cyclonus didn't know enough about humans to accurately describe the creature other than it was pale with brown fuzz atop it's organic-helm and optical assistors perched on its face.

It looked him up and down when he did not respond.

"My names Rafael, but you can call me 'Raf' if you want."


	8. Beautiful Lies

Cyclonus squinted at the human before glancing suspiciously around his environment.

An Autobot must've moved him here, or at least be hiding around a corner, just waiting for their chance at him.

His human observer remained quiet as if observing him and it unsettled Cyclonus.

Catching a glimpse of himself in a dusty surface his dirty reflection showed clear streaks of missing paint and a lack of insignia.

It had no idea.

But if there was an Autobot around it might.

"I'm the only one here" This 'Raf' entity employed a smile, no doubt to lure him into a false sense of security, "My friend, Jack, had to leave after we got the generators back online a, uh, work related issue"

It almost worked and Cyclonus relaxed a little bit.

Besides if your systems were totally tensed up they'd be less effective in a potential situation.

"So, you're dumb enough to be alone with a 'mysterious' alien?" He finally dignified the organic with a response, continuing to squint at him suspiciously.

"Well" Raf rubbed the back of his head, "I'd assumed with your injuries and energy levels you wouldn't be much of a threat… Even if you were a Decepticon"

The human seemed to expect him to be surprised that he'd know that name but stared blankly as Cyclonus didn't react, but instead looked himself over again.

Yup, little energy and still damaged.

"Even still, my size alone makes me a threat" Cyclonus gave him a flat reply.

"That is a fair point" Raf nodded at making a shrugging gesture "Let's say I was playing 'good samaritan' to a stranger"

"What a very Autobot way of thinking" Cyclonus muttered before realising just what he'd said.

"Ah" Raf backed away a step or two on the railing as if weighing up several options in his head, none of which Cyclonus probably wanted in his state, "So you're a D-"

"A refugee" Cyclonus cut him off quickly, and it got the human to stand up straight again and look him in the face.

"A refugee?" He parroted with a suspicious look and a pose that seemed as if he was ready to make a hasty retreat.

"Ex-Decepticon, we left Cybertron when the war was lost, not that we were truly 'in it' to begin with, essentially having left it thousands of cycles ago..." Cyclonus spoke smoothly, the tale already spinning in his head.

The human will just eat it up and give him no problems whatsoever.

"Wait, 'we'? Who's we?" Raf was back at the railing holding onto it as he leaned in curiously, the hook of Cyclonus's story already holding onto him.

Cyclonus paused.

He'd had this one ready for a while.

"Warnado" He put a hand to his scratched chest and made a small bow, "And my friend Shockdrive, he was who I was searching for in the wreckage of my ship before..." Cyclonus remembered screaming and then passing out and feeling a slight flush of embarrassment, "I injured myself on a bit of the ship and ended up rebooting"

"There's another Decepticon out there!?" Raf seemed distressed at the thought.

"Ex" 'Warnado' reminded him, "Although he does still have his insignia on" He tapped at his own chest indicating where his had been.

"Oh. Oh dear, but what will he do if he wakes up?" Raf ran a hand through his 'fur'.

"Look for me, obviously, and probably be a bit irritable" Cyclonus put a bit of emphasis on the last word "Best you just open these doors and let me go get him and you don't have to worry about either of us anymore"

"I can't do that!" Raf sputtered "I've already told Fowler you're here! That's why no one's come to investigate the base yet, and if anything suspicious happens before I can report back about you they'll send the military! And they won't care if you're a so-called Ex-Con!"

Cyclonus vented sharply, anything like that and no doubt Autobots would come running to the disturbance, there was no way they just 'abandoned' Earth after everything that'd just happened.

"Then, accompany me" he settled on as a response.

If this human DID know Autobots, then he could easily be of use to him.

Just need to 'smooth relations' and it'll be perfect.

Raf crossed his arms, frowning into space despite his claim of 'refugee' the human was still mistrusting of him.

"How can I trust you not to pull any funny business?"

Cyclonus paused a little, putting together the best response for his story.

"Of course you wouldn't" He sighed sadly "We'd hoped to find an uninhabited planet far away from the Decepticon stigma, first home and now, here" he sat down, the clunk echoing loudly "At least let me send him a signal, telling him where to come. I don't want him to run into danger… he can be a bit of a fool like that"

Raf seemed taken back by his display of resigned submission

"I'm sorry Warnado, It's just past experiences have-"

"Coloured your view, yes, I get it, we may have done nothing during the war but guard bases and move supplies around but it's still a looming shade of purple sealing us away from home" He drooped his shoulder struts for effect "Else, believe me, we would've been on Cybertron, not bothering you at all..."

"Warnado stop, I just can't agree to let you out so easily it may be unwarranted stigma but you're new here and people… well they know nothing about Cybertronians, they'd freak out regardless" Raf silenced him quickly and Cyclonus shut up instantly, quickly fearing he may have laid it on 'too thick'.

"What if I promise to clean up the wreckage? A...and get my friend back? Bring him here and we can stay here, would that prove anything?" Cyclonus fiddled with his own digits making sure to look as shy and nervous as possible.

"We do need to move that wreckage… and see about your friend…" Raf rubbed his face thoughtfully "This base is far away from the city, but with walking to and fro you'd still be conspicuous…"

Cyclonus felt a twinge of panic and disgust poke at his spark.

He wasn't about to suggest an Earthen alt mode was he?"

"How about this, we go get your friend and bring him here, then to prove I'm not judging you totally unfairly about… your situation I'll lend a hand in helping repair your wing, travelling as a vehicle to collect the ship parts would be far less obvious" he finished.

Cyclonus nodded. It was fair, even if he was still suspicious of him, but he had to gain this human as a potential ally and Autobot shield.

"Excellent!" His compliance worked in his favour as his lack of argument seemed to put the human at ease.

Cyclonus made sure to smile as happily and least-threateningly as he could standing up and rushing to the nearest side of the human building.

"Warnado… The door's on the other side"


	9. Friend Retrieval

The human seemed to be utterly at ease around him now.

Cyclonus couldn't tell if this was due to his 'refugee' tale and displays of passiveness putting him at ease or the Earthlings past experience providing confidence.

Either way, do everything to gain this human as an ally until it's time to leave.

Simple.

Raf seemed to know enough about technology to know he couldn't exactly fly away the moment the door opened and vanish and didn't employ any kind of restraint or other kind of control tactic.

"So, as an Ex-Con, I'm sure you won't mind promising not to run off, right? I can trust you to do that, this is enough of a risk as it is" The human provided him with a perfect opening.

"Yes, you have my word! I just want to make sure my friend is okay!" He nodded back, not actually lying.

He returned the small smiling gesture the human gave him.

Trust in familiarity.

The Earth vehicle gave him, unfortunately, Autobot vibes, even with the 'flatbed trailer' hooked to it, but he didn't stare as he followed a step behind keeping his servo's at his side where the human could see them to make a show of his 'trustability'.

There was a groove in the ground from where he'd been dragged along and Cyclonus frowned at it.

Such a crude transportation method.

As they reached the crash site the Earth's solar body was setting over the horizon.

Pieces of metal were bathed in an orange light, making it look warm and nicer than it actually was.

"Could you help me put a few bits of metal onto my trailer when you're done?" Raf had gotten out of his lifeless mechanical transport, in his hands he held some metal that looked huge compared to him but was little more than a shard to Cyclonus.

He could manage it but barely.

"O-of course" Cyclonus nodded, maintaining brief optical contact with the organic before he bolted back to the main ship.

Feeling the human's gaze continually fall back to him Cyclonus tried again to pull himself up and into the open hole in the ship's side.

Only this time he did it slower and put more of the weight on his right side, it was still a bit of a struggle but he didn't mind letting this human see some weakness.

Not right now at least.

Within the ship, walls were missing chunks of their plating and wires hanging out of the holes, the ceiling and support beams were twisted and crumpled.

The front of the ship where he was, took the most damage, having split open and shattered into many pieces littering the surrounding area as well as throwing him out.

The engine was disconnected and useless, but the gravitational stabiliser was still relatively functional. It could be rewired to go against the planet's natural gravity and make it just that fraction lighter to move.

He re-entered the 'med bay' of the ship.

The slab was firmly wedged into the wall and everything had been thrown around.

There was also a large hole in the wall and no Galvatron.

Making a beeline for the hole Cyclonus looked through and found a destroyed room of spare parts, leaning at a downwards angle.

A glowing streak of blue brought his optics down to Galvatron, face down on the floor sprawled out like he'd simply just been worn out from training.

But with a gash on his back.

There wasn't anything fatal and that was the main thing.

Kneeling down and reaching over Cyclonus shook his shoulder strut.

No response.

"Hey" he tried calling softly, but Galvatron did not move.

Stifling his worry Cyclonus thought over his options before shyly grabbing his shoulder.

Giving a few careful pulls he had Galvatron's servo in his.

"Hey, Galvatron" He rubbed the palm of his 'hand', before quickly changing his motion to stroking the palm with a couple of digits.

Of all the things, Galvatron found his palm to be one of 'those' places and he always shivered when it was rubbed deliberately.

Cyclonus had found it utterly bizarre but also an easy target for times when he'd wanted to tease Galvatron by triggering the involuntary response.

Galvatrons hand twitched reacting automatically to the touch in the sensitive area.

A few short moments later and he made a low mumble.

"Oh honestly, you and your palm" He sighed relieved.

"Uf, stop… Stop teasing my palms Oil-drip" Galvatron didn't get up but shook his head, rubbing his faceplates against the floor in sluggish annoyance.

"Aah but they're such an easy target" Cyclonus rubbed his servo again and Galvatron squirmed finally looking up.

"Cyclonus? What? Are we?" He tried moving but even Cyclonus could hear the creaking as his joints hissed and protested, sounding as if they threatened to snap if he dared move them further.

"Sshh, it's 'Warnado' now" Cyclonus moved a hand to his lip plates at the mention of his actual name.

"I…? What? Isn't that a name we… ?" Galvatron's face motioned through a few emotions as he couldn't settle on an actual feeling.

"Yes it is, now come on 'Shockdrive', I have to show you to our new 'friend'" Cyclonus held out both hands for him to grab onto.

Galvatron looked confused but managed to slowly reach out and take both his servo's in his own, wincing at his protesting systems.

Cyclonus held on tightly as he helped pull Galvatron up and out of the slanted room he was in, standing up as he pulled him into the remains of the med bay.

Galvatron looked wobbly on his pede's and probably incapable of making a straight line if left to his own devices.

"You punched me… " He suddenly frowned and Cyclonus stumbled a little as the memory washed over him, "You didn't even say that's what you were going to do and now we're using different names!?"

Cyclonus quickly composed himself and looked Galvatron in the optic.

"There wasn't enough medicine to use and I had to install the combiner software in you. For defence, as for the names? We crashed because someone forgot to put the autopilot on"

Galvatron immediately shrank back, lip plates thinning and optics going wide as it dawned on him.

"Now come on, you have to meet our ally, and Autobot defence" Cyclonus winked.


	10. Meet the Human

**A/N:** Hey guys, just a heads up but due to some unfortunate and emotionally draining events happening this week combined with little writing time updates may well stop until next week. I might squeak one in Thursday but I do not know.

Thank you for your continued reading of this story! I hope it will continue to please and you have fun reading it!

* * *

"We're refugees who left Cybertron when the Autobots won. All we've done is guard bases and transport supplies"

Galvatron nodded, taking mental notes as he followed Cyclonus's slow steps as he took the time to bring him up to speed.

"This human has met our kind before so we make him an ally, get him believing us, then we have leverage if we're discovered. Even if he didn't, having a human willing to help us would provide useful anyway if we were found, but he knows not to trust Decepticons so play it up"

"Sure thing… Warnado" Cyclonus faltered a little at his 'new' name.

"That's going to be the hardest part to get used to" He shuddered and Galvatron smirked.

At the opening Cyclonus entered in through, Galvatron climbed out first, landing carefully before holding his servo's out.

"What are you doing?" Cyclonus leaned out of the hole giving Galvatron a confused look.

"I'm gonna catch you!" Galvatron replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'm not THAT badly injured! I climbed up!" Cyclonus crossed his arms.

"Yeah, well, you'll just keep on going if someone doesn't put their pede down" Galvatron huffed "So jump on down"

Cyclonus frowned but refused to jump. Getting on the floor he turned around and slowly climbed out, he'd drop off the side of the ship and land himself.

Instead, Galvatron grabbed his pede's and pulled him, making him turn and drop off sooner falling into waiting servos.

"I was doing fine!" Cyclonus whined as Galvatron had a servo under his knee joints and the other carefully around his back.

"Still helping!" Galvatron chimed with a chirping tone, "Now where is this place?"

Galvatron looked over the sandy dunes, now bathed in a fading pinkish light as the sun was almost gone.

"You're on Earth!" Another voice chimed in and Galvatron whirled around in surprise looking confused when no one was there.

Cyclonus knew better and looked down at the Raf-human who stood in front of them.

Raf looked back, looked at Galvatron, looked at both of them.

Then smiled.

Cyclonus suddenly felt unreasonably embarrassed at a human seeing him being carried about.

Galvatron caught onto his look and bent over a little, spotting the human a few feet in front of them.

"AAH!" Galvatron jumped back, flailing unreasonably and losing his grip on Cyclonus, almost dropping him but instead he grabbed onto Cyclonus's waist, practically hoisting him over his shoulder strut with a tight, protective, death-like grip.

With his view changed to nothing but Galvatron's back and the sand Cyclonus struggled fruitlessly in his partner's grasp only just catching the human chuckle slightly before he drooped over, disgruntled.

"What is thaaaaat!?" Galvatron whined, high-pitched and squeaky.

"I am Raf!" Raf chuckled, Galvatrons silly behaviour seemingly putting him right at ease "You're Shockdrive, right?"

Cyclonus frowned, of course he is, that's the name he told him, stupid human.

"Uuuuh… Uuuuuh" Galvatron faltered "Y-yes tiny thing… I am?"

Raf chuckled again utterly amused by Galvatron.

"I'm a human!" He corrected "Warnado told me your name"

"W-w… Yes… Warnado and me… I, uh" Galvatron stammered and Cyclonus put a hand to his face, he'd better not blow it.

"Put me down" Cyclonus grumbled and Galvatron made a small squeak before he complied and let Cyclonus back down onto his pede's.

Cyclonus made a point of straightening himself up to cover his own embarrassment but the human was still smiling at them.

And that was it.

An uneasy silence fell over them as none spoke or moved, unsure of where to go next.

"You're not gonna… like 'slime' us or something?" Galvatron broke the silence with a worried whisper and Cyclonus didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Raf answered for him and began laughing at a volume louder than Cyclonus' would've expected from such a small body.

"What? Humans can't 'slime' things!" He laughed.

"Oh… Then no eggs! It's already been stressful enough I don't want anything laying its eggs in me!" Galvatron shuffled about nervously.

"Eggs? We don't lay eggs either!" Raf giggled and Cyclonus relaxed.

"Are… Are you sure?" Galvatron looked like a scared protoform as he almost cowered at the sight of the alien.

"I'm absolutely sure" Raf was grinning at them now, "Best get you back to the base, your, uh, new temporary home" He walked over to his truck opening the door.

"Didn't you want help putting things on that?" Cyclonus asked remembering the human's prior request.

"No thank you, I filled it up with lots of tiny parts" He gestured to the trailer or which Cyclonus thought could take a few more parts, but he let the human do as he will.

"What's it doing with that?" Galvatron leaned towards Cyclonus slightly, before suddenly gasping and taking a step back when Raf got in, "It… what?"

It was Cyclonus's turn to chuckle as Galvatron watched on in confusion at the human's actions.

"It's a transport machine, they're small and can't carry much so they need it" Galvatron nodded slowly at his words, processing them "They can also fit in our alt modes too"

At that Galvatron stood back and frowned in shock.

"Now you're pulling my crankshaft!" He hissed.

"Nope! Being serious!" Cyclonus smiled.

"Are you guys going to come or what?" Raf was leaning out of the vehicle watching their quiet conversation.

"Of course" Cyclonus hummed.

Without thinking he grabbed Galvatrons hand and brought him along.


	11. Meet the Other Human

**A/N:** So in the last chapter I warned I wouldn't be able to update or write much this week due to personal loss, but unfortunately it seems something new has arisen to steal writing time away from me. So apologies for slow future chapters too but I will do my best to keep on making the time to write.

* * *

It was a relatively quick journey through the desert even with new weight and new company.

Back at the base, Galvatrons optics darted around harshly as he tried to take in every last detail as Cyclonus lead him to a specific hangar.

One Raf had darted into, deciding it was more important to 'put them away' first before handling the little bits of debris his vehicle held.

The door to the hangar creaked open, still protesting the sudden use after so long.

Cyclonus smiled as he heard a soft 'oooh' from Galvatron, thinking how he didn't need to act so much, his lack of knowledge of anything Earth related would provide ample cover; he just needed to remember their name and story.

Calmly and proudly Cyclonus lead Galvatron into the hangar grinning before preparing to give a rather silly announcement of 'Welcome!' but it was interrupted.

"DECEPTICON!" An unfamiliar voice yelled, "Get behind me, Raf!"

Whirling around they came face to face with another human with dark fur on its head this time, he stood protectively in front of Raf, glaring angrily at them.

Galvatron managed to rebut Cyclonus's earlier thought as his immediate reaction was to growl and let his engine rumble at the new 'threat' even if he had taken a step back.

"Jack wait!" Raf tried to interject but this 'Jack' human seemed less than willing to hear their tale.

"This one looks different!" Galvatron hissed pulling Cyclonus back by his hand, making him suddenly aware they were still holding hands, "This one looks different! I bet THIS is the acid-spitting variation!"

"What?" Unintentionally the sudden display and talking threw the new human off guard as he stood upright looking more confused than angry as he took in the sight of them.

"I told you none of us can spit acid OR slime!" Raf quickly used the distraction to put himself between the new human and them "Jack, this is Warnado, and his friend Shockdrive" He introduced them "They're refugee's, they left the war"

"And why should I believe that! That one's still wearing the Decepticon badge!" Jack tried getting Raf behind him again but Raf managed to hold his ground.

"Of course he would, the last group of living beings we met WERE Decepticons!" Cyclonus hissed "It's easier to pretend we're still one of them than explain we deserted them and the war itself!"

Jack seemed to step back a bit, undeniable logic in his statement.

"Still, why should we believe you?" He wasn't totally sold.

"Jack, we can't, not fully" Raf turned to face Jack and Cyclonus kept a lid on the little hiss he was close to making frustrated that his efforts had not served him as well as he thought, "But neither one made any attempt to flee or attack me, AND they're offering to help move their ship back here AWAY from potential unwanted interlopers"

Cyclonus relaxed he had earned a little bit of trust from the one.

"Could all be lies to keep us fooled, they are named DECEPT-icons." Jack still was not trusting.

"Yes, I am aware of that" Raf was rubbing the side of his head, Cyclonus frowned again.

"Isn't it a bit rude to talk about us while we're here?" He crossed his arms at them making sure his frown was part of a more 'hurt' expression than annoyed, "Even more reason for us to leave as soon as possible"

"What? You're leaving?" Jack quizzed.

"Yes! Because we want to be free from the stigma of Decepticons! And clearly, it's still here!" Cyclonus twisted his body slightly so he was more turned away from the humans pouting angrily "We'll repair our ship and leave!"

"Jaaack" Raf sighed "I know no one's going to trust anyone after just one afternoon, but we need to get that ship here and out of anyone's way! And it'll be much easier with their help than just us two"

"Yeah… That makes sense" Jack relented at the truth in his words but still cast them a suspicious glare.

Cyclonus refused to look back at him.

"Oh," Galvatron suddenly let go of his hand shyly, before putting his hands on his chest peeling off his Decepticon symbol.

He looked around the room for a few moments before slapping it onto the wall next to him.

"Great, so that's part of the decor now?" Jack seemed unimpressed at the symbol now practically looking down over everyone in the room. Cyclonus thought it a bit odd to say, especially when a few of the leftover Autobot parts had their symbol still etched on.

"Little thing this place would've needed a sense of decor in the first place" Galvatron folded his arms.

"Well, this went as well as can be expected" Raf seemed to sigh, "I think if Miko were still here and not back home, she'd have set up interrogation room already" The remark seemed to elicit a small smirk from Jack as they talked about this other.

"What? There's more of you!?" Galvatron blurted out.

"This is their planet Shockdrive" Cyclonus made a point of saying the name again.

"Now your wing, I promised to see what I could do to repair it" Raf was walking towards them making some kind of gesture with his hands.

"What? Raf! Repair them? Really?" Jack caught up with his friend and grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Yes, Jack. Repair. I promised because I don't want to judge unfairly. I mean the war is over, remember that's why the Autobots left Earth" Raf removed Jack's hand.

"Yet they still wear the Decepticon insignia no matter their reasoning, nor have they gone to Cybertron! Didn't that creep of a Decepticon medic join with the Autobots and go to Cybertron with them? Why not them?" Jack was intent to argue.

"If only it were that simple" Cyclonus huffed breaking the two humans apart and bringing attention back to them.

"Well I'm sure we can all talk this stuff out later, but first we retrieve the ship, which will be easier with THEIR help and even easier if they're disguised as vehicles!" Raf yelled shutting everyone up, before gesturing to a berth that was in the base.

It was a bit small and from here Cyclonus could see that lying down on it would be very demeaning.

Damn trust gaining atrocities, he'd have to grin and bear it.

"Wasn't that where the Autobots tried to interrogate Soundwave?" Jack seemed to delight in putting out that bit of information watching them carefully to gauge their reactions.

Thankfully Galvatron was looking the other way and Cyclonus had long since learnt how to keep a straight face.

"Explains why it's so small" He retorted.

Biting back a sigh Cyclonus straddled the berth, only for Galvatron to fail in stifling a small giggle to which Cyclonus gave a clear grumble and Galvatron held his hands up in a minute apology.

By the time Cyclonus had actually settled on it his arms, legs and head were all drooping over the side of the berth.

"This base was meant to be temporary" Raf offered apologetically.

Cyclonus gave him a grunt in response.


	12. Late Call

It was an awkward, silly sight to behold and Raf stood uselessly at the base of it.

"So where to next?" Jack had his arms crossed looking between the two Ex-cons as he tried to keep them both in-sight.

"Well, I don't know what I was expecting but I have an idea!" Raf rubbed his head as he realised the only way for him to be able to fix Warnado's engine would be to climb all over his back and practically stand in the wound as he did so.

"Y'know what, I'll ring Miko" Jack seemed to wander away from them.

Galvatron looked confused and had taken a step backwards when he'd realised Raf was approaching him but now the human had turned away from him to look at Jack.

"What? Right now? Do you even know the time in Japan?"

"A, no. B, she'd kill us if she found out we didn't tell her as soon as possible. C, maybe she'll think this is as stupid as I do. D, Fowler gave us that encrypted server ages ago just in case we ever met our 'friends' again and needed to talk" Jack listed off his reasons "Plus she's probably left her tablet on anyway..."

Cyclonus looked up from where he was drooped to pass Galvatron a disapproving look at being left lounging on the table.

And at being sidelined again.

"Right, well I'll be sure to correct you if you get too biased" Raf hummed and Jack made a disapproving grunt, "Excuse me? Shockdrive?"

Galvatron gave a startled glance around the room before settling on Raf with an apprehensive look, "Yes hoomin?"

"Call me Raf, and it's hu-man" He readjusted his spectacles "Do you have any medical experience?"

"A little" Galvatron seemed unsure if he should kneel down to be more level with the human or not "Not enough to BE a medic but enough to repair myself after... accidents"

"Wonder what kind of 'accidents' that could be" Jack mumbled as he fiddled with some Earth-device in his hands.

Cyclonus wasn't fond of this one.

"You mean like the time you somehow forgot your alt-mode isn't flight-capable and just jumped off a moving ship?" Cyclonus uttered partially to spite the more untrusting human.

Galvatron sputtered making a series of noises like several words mashed together as he failed to start a sentence.

'Failed' being a good and lucky thing as Cyclonus caught the beginning syllable of his actual name amongst the words.

"You promised you wouldn't tell!" Galvatron finally blurted out.

"Shockdrive; that little squeal you made half-an-astrosecond after jumping when you realised your mistake continues to be one of the best sounds I've ever heard" Cyclonus grinned, it was something that had actually happened.

They were talking before going out into a battle against some rogue Autobots trying to pinch some Energon and Galvatron leapt out of the opening despite it being the place Cyclonus was meant to fly off the ship.

Galvatron huffed a little more before deciding to crouch down and away from Cyclonus facing Raf

"Yes small one, I know enough to repair things what do YOU want?" he deliberately 'cut out' Cyclonus from the conversation.

"Well" Raf had a grin on his face, Cyclonus couldn't tell if he was finding amusement in their behaviour or was just smiling to keep up a 'friendly' appearance "I'm a bit small and to fix your friend I'd need to climb over him" Cyclonus winced, he didn't want some grubby organic all over his plates "Plus some of the tools leftover here aren't my size, so if it's alright with you, I'd like to direct you on how to repair his engine, you can correct me wherever I go wrong and perform the repairs yourself"

"Oh… Can you even see from those platforms?" Galvatron gestured to the walkways that were about the hangar, allowing a human to be high up.

"I wouldn't be able to get a good and close look, no… Would you mind if I sat on your shoulder?" Raf stated directly figuring it to be the best use.

Even still Galvatron's reaction was to stare blankly, no doubt his thoughts clogged up like too many cargo trains trying to go through one tunnel.

"Uh." He managed after a while, Cyclonus sighed "No… I mean… How?"

"Gggg… Shockdrive just let him sit on your shoulder" Cyclonus cut himself off before he slipped up.

"But I mean how… on my shoulder… Do I?" Galvatron held his hand out to the human as if going to tap it on the head before rapidly retracting the outstretched limb before it touched him "Y'know?"

"Well I don't want to climb all over either of you if you're not comfortable with it -" Raf explained to him

"I'm not" Galvatron was quiet.

"- Which is fair and reasonable so to be quicker about it I'll climb onto your hand, then you lift me to your shoulder so I can get a good close look and direct you" He finished.

"Hmm mmm m-okay" He put his hand on the ground for the human.

"Palm up" Galvatron complied, flipping his hand over so the human could get on. His body twitched and shivered as the human stepped onto his palm grabbing onto one of his digits for stability.

"You and your palms" Cyclonus mumbled as Galvatron took a laboriously long time to stand upright, trying to stay as stable as can be.

"Shut up" Galvatron whined embarrassed, as he finally held his servo high enough for Raf to clamber onto his shoulder.

Galvatron's face turned to one of horror, but more the kind of horror of someone who is clumsy being handed a valuable, fragile, thing rather than disgust or fear-horror.

Galvatron tip-toed over to Cyclonus on the berth and at Raf's request leaned over to let him look closer, and begin directing the operation.

"Jack? What are YOU doing up at this hour? Isn't it late as dicks in Jasper?" A voice familiar only to Jack and Raf suddenly entered the room.

"You still say that?" Jack greeted her back, holding the tablet a small distance from himself so the camera could pick his face up clearly.

"Uh, yeah, it's funny?" Miko stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Hello, Miko!" Raf suddenly yelled from his perch making Galvatron jump a little.

"Oh, heeeey Raffy's there too! What are you two up to? You're ringing for a reason I can tell" Her voice turned suspicious.

"Yes, actually, there is" Jack stated matter of factly and Galvatron could hear the Raf-human give a small sigh as he directed him to a different part of the open engine.

Jack paced around the room for a little bit before finding a spot he seemed happy with, at which point he held the tablet up getting the entirety of Hangar E and its new inhabitants.

"We found these two a few hours ago" Jack explained quickly and simply "A ship 'crash' apparently"

"Apparently" Cyclonus snorted.

"Whoa! Who are they!?" Miko was entranced and excited at the new Cybertronian figures in the room "And why is the one lying down somewhere that's way too small for it?"

"They claim to be Ex-Decepticon refugees" Jack stated as if that was introduction enough.

"WHAT!?" Miko was apparently unafraid of her family overhearing as her yell made Jack wince.

"Wait! Wait!" Raf scrambled about on Galvatron's shoulder until he managed a wobbly stance on the highest point of it.

"Raf!?" Miko gasped spying him atop the shoulder of the Cybertronian.

"They DID crash the wreckage is still in the desert!" Raf corrected.

"What are you doing up there?" Miko was still preoccupied with his position within the hangar.

"Because I asked to be up here and Shockdrive let me!" Raf answered, 'Shockdrive' in question managed a slow and careful look over his shoulder being careful not to potentially bump the human off with his helm.

"They come in pink too?" He uttered, referencing the hair streaks Miko had continued to keep even if they were more dyed tips at this point.

"What's he talkin' 'bout?" Miko immediately grabbed onto what Galvatron had said "You laughed and said you'd get in LESS trouble with me moving back with my family and yet here you are!" She yelled.

"Well, Raf seems to think they're alright, in fact, that's why he's helping to repair the one on the table" Jack was behind the tablet as he held it out for Miko to see the hangar.

"Because! Miko" Raf immediately followed up from Jack preventing her from replying as he pointed 'Shockdrive' to another part of the engine, "They're both injured and NEITHER of them have threatened me, tried to run away OR been difficult to manage! And this one probably still thinks we can slime things..." Raf pointed at the one he was stood on.

"And we're also planning to leave and find a new uninhabited home as soon as we can!" Cyclonus grunted from his position on the table, focusing on keeping his wing from twitching as the repairs felt strange.

"And you guys are believing this?" If any of the boys could see her from their positions in the hanger they would see her cross her arms disapprovingly.

"Well, I'm not" Jack muttered.

"And I keep saying no one is going to truly trust anyone after ONE MEETING!" Raf yelled.

"You're still helping Decepticons" She retorted.

Cyclonus made a loud groan.

"You ARE a stubborn lot! Is this why that council wanted to invade Earth?" He hissed.

With Raf facing the other direction and no human in front of them, they missed Galvatron shoot Cyclonus a panicked glare.

"What?" Was spoken in union as the humans turned their attention back to him.

"We did use our leftover codes to try and keep track of Decepticon broadcasts, it's easier to avoid them if you know where they are, and some lot calling themselves a council were thinking of plans to invade Earth. We didn't care we weren't trying to come here!" He answered.

"Then how come we don't know about this!? Aren't we all meant to be part of that 'Unit:E' thing still?" Miko whined.

"Well, I don't know! We wanted to avoid this place!" Cyclonus snapped "I know there was SOMETHING about Autobots being here recently and that's it!"

"Well I wouldn't say recently" Miko sounded a bit sad "It's been years since I saw Bulkhead"

"Yeah, they left to repair Cybertron after the war was OVER which makes sense for there to be EX-cons" Raf sighed putting emphasis on a few choice words.

"Oh yeah… that makes sense" Miko sounded like the realisation only just hit her.

"No no no, not that, this was much more recent" Cyclonus uttered "Less than an Orbital Cycle ago I think, look you're asking the wrong mecha we've been out of the actual loop for many vorns only catching stray broadcasts, we know less than you probably do!" He hoped feigning ignorance would proceed to put cards in their favour.

"We did pick up those reports of strange things around that Crown City place" Jack added quietly.

Raf had gone back to the repairs, the subject apparently bringing some silence to the humans.

"It may be crude but you should be able to at least stay air-born" He announced after a time.


	13. Ship Retrieval

Jack continued to hold the tablet against his chest while pointing the camera at the Hangar, being a mobile viewing point for Miko to watch what they were up to.

Being 'repaired' Cyclonus had got up off the berth, having to stretch his joints and servos out after his awkward perch.

"Yo, horns, that's badass" Jack overheard Miko mutter.

Raf had been quickly placed back down on the ground.

Galvatron was rubbing at the spot he had been sat on looking confused at the missing sensation.

"So can you transform?" Raf was stood next to Galvatron on the sidelines, giving him plenty of room to change into his alt mode, there was enough for the Autobots to change so plenty for one mech.

With four individuals watching Cyclonus felt something akin to stage fright as it was if he was under scrutiny already.

Maybe with his viewpoint changed from within his alt mode he'd feel better.

His 'audience' watched as Cyclonus spun in the air, plates shifting and form relocating until there was nothing but an alien jet floating in the middle of the hangar.

At least until the front end drooped and it almost flipped.

Thankfully Galvatron stepped forwards and scooped up his nose cone so it was level with the rest of him.

"It's a start" Galvatron chuckled and Cyclonus grunted at him.

"My systems are still a little stressed, I should've been parked rather than transform straight into a hover" He uttered quickly as he heard one of the humans begin speaking, and he'd rather not enter a long conversation hoping that the sooner they moved the ship parts the sooner the humans would leave to do… something else.

"But is it working? The repairs, I mean" Raf asked as if he needed to specify.

Cyclonus took a few moments to adjust his systems, and float backwards a little so Galvatron let go of his front end letting him analyse the full data.

"My left side is functioning at a very low capacity, but functioning"

"Aww, that's brilliant Warny!" Galvatron patted his nose cone roughly with a beaming grin.

"Well, they're much friendlier with each other than any 'con we've ever met…" Miko scratched her cheek as she sat back watching them all.

Jack waved his arm and looked at his watch.

"Geez, hey Raf can we either book the trucks for another two days or move off? I still have an afternoon shift tomorrow… today" He called.

"Man, you're a supervisor now and that burger joint still sucks" Miko was grinning as the hangar of people began getting ready to move.

"Tell me about it" Jack grunted, "What's the point of Fowler making us agents of Unit:E when we were assigned the Cybertronian area of it and then none of them even officially show up again apart from these two!"

Chains and ropes were loaded into the back of the trucks and one tablet almost humorously buckled in on one of the seats.

Outside the hangar doors, Galvatron transformed too.

"A tank… How surprising" Jack spoke from the side of his mouth so only Miko could hear.

"Uh, I can't see anything apart from the dashboard at this angle" She snapped.

Deciding to show her later, the bizarre convoy of vehicles headed out into the desert.

Two ordinary vehicles and a futuristic tank and jet.

Raf, 'Shockdrive' and 'Warnado' went about figuring out the best, easiest points to attach chains and ropes to in order to move the wreckage of the ship.

It being a small ship with about six rooms including the engine room and pilot's deck worked incredibly in their favour now.

Cyclonus had crawled back inside the ship, finding it's artificial gravity unit and setting to work reversing it's settings and expelling the force rather than making it pull things in.

The trucks were already whining by the time he got out, Galvatron had helped them attach chains and ropes to some of the more awkward areas to reach and they were already attempting to pull the craft along.

Cyclonus debated on telling them to quit it and let the gravity generator warm up and activate first but he didn't want to bother with another conversation.

"RAAGH!" Cyclonus jumped at the sudden yell, followed by a sudden loud clang and the ship lurching forwards a small amount.

"Gaa-haah, what ARE you doing?" He rounded the side of the ship and came over to Galvatron, standing proudly by a fist-sized dent.

"Oh nothing, Cyyyyy" He mocked his second near-slip up "Just shoving it along a bit"

Cyclonus cast him a frown.

"It would be better just to transform and shove it continuously… Shocky"

Galvatron's faceplates scrunched up at the nickname.

It was quite adorable.

"That does not feel right" He muttered

"Neither does 'Warny', honestly"

"It was all that came to mind!"

The ship hummed quietly and some granules of sand crunched as it almost moved.

"There's our cue" Cyclonus nodded and they both transformed.

With their efforts combined the ship moved.

Just.

It made an obnoxious grinding, crunching noise as it worked its way through the sand.

It wouldn't be so bad if they were moving at a decent pace but it was slower than an idle Slothticon.

At the hangar, it was no better.

Crunching sand was replaced with a high pitched shrieking whine as it carved its way to a hangar adjacent to the one they had been sat in.

Shut and locked they all converged back in the original hangar.

"So, what shall we do for supplies to repair and rebuild our craft and go?" Cyclonus stood in the centre of the hangar looking over the others.

"You're very eager to leave" Miko noted.

"Well we're clearly not the most welcome here, and who knows what that council was on about. We don't want to be in a place where there might still be… trouble" He held his servos out in a mock-shrug gesture.

Raf sighed heavily.

"I have no idea WHAT can be done with or about your ship, I need to contact Fowler again and see what Unit:E has to say about this" He then promptly yawned.

"What was that?" Galvatron squatted and squinted at Raf, intrigued by the new motion.

"It's a yawn" Miko informed him.

"Yeah, we're tired and we have things to do and sort out about your 'presence' here" Raf nodded "And Jack has to go back to work"

"Oh, joy" He responded flatly.

"We're going to have to trust you not to leave this place, maybe not even this hangar! You can finish doing whatever other repairs you need to yourselves but don't leave" Raf stressed to them.

"You have our word" Cyclonus nodded, quite pleased with the prospect of being rid of them even if temporarily.

"For what it's worth" Jack yawned, slinking out of the hangar.


	14. Heated

They waited, giving the humans a little while to actually move away and leave.

They'd hung about outside for a minute saying their goodbyes to the one on-screen.

The sound of the truck engines pulling away and fading away signalled their eventual disappearance.

"THAT was weird, it's feet were all over me!" Galvatron rubbed his shoulder where the offending human had been.

"I don't like having to deal with three of them, and they mentioned some 'Unit', this may end up being more hassle than it's worth." Cyclonus rolled his shoulder feeling a joining cable pop into a better position alongside the connective pistons.

"Why do we have to put up with their slag?" Galvatron sneered.

"Because we crashed here!" Cyclonus snapped "And they KNOW of our world, what's better; pandering to some gross organics for a bit or going around stealing bits of machinery to repair our ship and becoming bigger targets for that stupid Earth-team the Autobots have here? At least with humans around us, they'll make a good shield Galvatron!"

"Agh, just how did we even end up here?! In general!" Galvatron threw his arms up in the air.

"There's always one person who isn't down with murder" Cyclonus hissed.

"Hm?"

"Cyberwarp" He spat the name out with vitriol "She didn't uphold her part of the combiner…"

"Don't say it"

"... Galvatronus" Galvatron shivered slightly his faceplates flushing a dark colour.

"You had to name it that" He whispered.

"Can't I show a little appreciation?" Cyclonus suddenly grinned happy to leave the bitter memory behind, "You've helped me maaaany times, after all, the combiner was strong too, couldn't help but name it after another strong thing in my life"

Galvatron flushed darker.

"Yeah!... Well… I wouldn't! I mean what would I name a combiner!? Cyclonia? Cyclotron? Oh hey, that one's actually really good" his face suddenly changing as if he'd forgotten everything else that'd been said.

Cyclonus laughed, he could count on something stupid happening with Galvatron to take the bitter edge off things.

"Besides why did you spill ALL the plans" Galvatron suddenly sighed and Cyclonus's wings drooped "Who knows, you could've lied or reactivated the controller and covered up your appearance, but spilling all of that too… Why'd you do it?"

"I don't know…" He murmured.

"You don't know? You DON'T KNOW!?" Galvatron's voice escalated in pitch as his lip plates curled back over fanged dental units.

"WHAT? Well, it's not like you were there to fill in the role! I had to work with those dregs! They weren't up to combat standard, they couldn't even catch a few mini-cons!" Cyclonus bristled.

"Oh great! As if seeing the broadcast wasn't frustratingly annoying enough, you ended up screwing up because no one noticed a MINI-CON!? You told me you had sensors equipped to DEAL WITH that kind of thing!" Galvatron snarled.

"I didn't see you run over to help me!" Cyclonus barked.

Galvatron reeled, systems twitching in built up anger.

"You…"

"What!? Too put off by its NAME?" He sneered "Couldn't be bothered to be back-up!? Shoot them in the back!?"

"Well… Excuse me for having FAITH IN YOU!" The hangar echoed with Galvatron's roar.

They stood staring at each other in the same hangar, but for what it felt like; the room was empty.

"I don't know… I… Usually, I have control, but I don't think the others kept control, one wasn't into it…" He recalled the emotions of their combined form as it fought "One was stressed, another was panicking… So I spilled I think… They're good at letting me control everything physically but it seems they all forgot where their emotions go… After all the loyalty I fragging showed them!" Cyclonus shook, his voice a low whisper "I didn't even think there was much of a point to blasted well getting Megatron back! He's been gone for Primus-knows-how-long! Would there even be a point!? But no theeeey wanted it!"

"So why didn't you just rule yourself!? You had Cybertron, Cyclonus! You'd done what he never had and actually had control of the entire planet!" Galvatron argued.

"I'm a WARRIOR! Not a leader! I have no desire to lead more than a team or be top rank! My spark belongs in battle or the air! I just know what I want and that's how I go!" Cyclonus snarled to the roof of the building, breaking optical contact with Galvatron "That's how we've always gone".

There was a lingering silence, it was cold and empty, their failure hovering in the air before settling on stressed, tired shoulders.

The only sound in the room for several units of Earth time was the low level hum of the primitive lighting system.

"Can you believe some builders wanted all six of them to be able to combine into one?" Galvatron broke the silence one hand rubbing at his helm.

"Good fragging luck to them" Cyclonus snorted "Crazy frackers"

A low-level chuckle floated around the room like water droplets in the air after a storm.

Galvatron clanged a little as he dropped to the ground; sitting down and flopping onto his back, a hand going to his helm and one clutching the plates over his spark.

"Are you alright?" Cyclonus stood beside his flopped form.

"... Yeah… Just 'coming down' I suppose" He panted as if he'd circled Cybertron in one night.

"Are you su-"

"YES!" Galvatron snapped jerking upright at painful speeds, optics twitching and lip plates quivering before he grabbed his helm in both hands and sagged back to the floor with a groan.

Cyclonus vented harshly, taking a step back watching Galvatron roll to his front and smother his helm with his arms, pressing his face into the floor.

Leaving him to it Cyclonus went to the small berth he had previously been resting upon and sat down upon it casting a dismal glance to Galvatron on the floor; only looking away when he began curling in on himself lying in a tight ball on the floor.

He sighed loudly.

"WE have combiner software now... just us" he quietly uttered.

Galvatron made the meekest sound in response and Cyclonus decided it would be best to let him come down fully from the recent events before trying to force more conversation from him.


	15. Convenient Monsters

Cyclonus must've dropped into recharge upon the berth, still sat upright, arms crossed in his lap, head drooped over.

Light tapping roused him gently and something shuffled quietly, with the painstaking slowness of the movement it was like something trying to be quiet as possible.  
Cyclonus didn't bother to online his optics.

"You" Galvatron hissed and Cyclonus roused just a little more.

"Uh, hi? I didn-" The sound of the brown-furred human reached Cyclonus's audio's and he suddenly understood the silly attempts at 'being quiet'.

"YOU and YOUR PLANET!" Galvatron's growling tone brought Cyclonus online with a start.

Galvatron was still on his hands and knees, but his back was arched looming over the human, like some kind of vicious, hungry Cybercat.

Worse, Cyclonus recognised the cables and support structures in Galvatron's back, tense to the point of popping and twitching uncontrollably.

Why now?

Of course now.

"It has to be YOUR FRAGGING PLANET! I JUST WANT TO GO HOME! YET YOU THINK OF US LIKE CYBER-DOGS! NO WONDER YOU WERE PALS WITH AUTOBOTS! CYBERTRON WAS OUR HOME TOO! WAS!" Galvatron had dented and cracked the floor with repeated punches and dug up chunks with his claws "BUT WE DON'T DESERVE A HOME!".

The human had backed into a wall and was desperately fumbling around with it, trying to find a door no doubt.  
He had a right to be terrified Galvatron's body was rising as his systems clenched and geared for what he wanted to do.

Blue sparks of electricity thrummed around his helm in a halo of spasming lights.

Cyclonus leapt to action  
"NO" he yelled, trying to distract Galvatron.

It hardly worked but he still jumped forwards, hooking his arms under Galvatron's chest and yanking him away from the human, throwing him to the floor.  
Galvatron screeched and Cyclonus knelt on him grabbing his upper arms in an attempt to hold him down, but Galvatron kicked with his leg, managing to bring the kneepad into Cyclonus's back while he wrapped his forearms around Cyclonus's and dug his claws in.

"CALM DOWN!"

Galvatron hissed in response.

"You have every right to be angry! There's nothing wrong with that"

Galvatron whined uselessly, Cyclonus was thankful he hadn't refuelled and the crash had weakened him even if he ignored it with his usual obliviousness.  
Galvatrons grasp on his arms loosened and Cyclonus put his hands around Galvatrons wrists, holding his stiffened arm joints as they slowly fell to the floor.

"NNGUH!" Galvatron snarled with a surprising sharpness, even with Cyclonus's weight upon him Galvatron spasmed slightly before deliberately hitting his head back on the floor.

"Don't do tha-" Cyclonus was in the middle of scolding him before Galvatron hit himself again and again before falling unconscious bringing a jarring silence to the room.

Quietly and slowly Cyclonus peered over his shoulder strut.

The human was still there, shrunk into the wall, organic optics almost falling out of their containers.

"Hmph… Sorry" Cyclonus mumbled.

"Uuuuuh" Raf squeaked quietly, barely moving from the wall he had cemented himself to, "What… what was that?"

Cyclonus stood up and then sat back down on the ground, only slightly changing his position to be more in Raf's direction and he pulled Galvatrons helm to his lap.

"It's quite safe, he's rebooting" He muttered.

Quietly and slowly Raf edged away from the wall, keeping himself at an angle where Cyclonus was between him and Galvatron.  
"What WAS that?" He repeated again but with more urgency.

"That was… Shockdrive, one of the many reasons we do not feel safe on an Autobot-controlled Cybertron" Cyclonus rubbed the back of Galvatron's helm making sure there were no harmful dents.

"I don't understand" Raf was much closer now but understandably wary.

"He was exposed to plasma by Autobots" Cyclonus answered "It made parts of his processor brittle, stress and overstimulation can make him… well, do that… among other things"

"But why? Isn't your Processor like your minds, like a brain or something?" Raf was almost directly behind Cyclonus now and the mech could easily read his heat signature at this range.

"I do not know what a brain is, but well, he's a war-build, a tank as an alt mode? He was practically made for fighting but even before the plasma incident he didn't act the way they wanted he had had breakdowns before, so he was relegated to use as a mere 'weapon'" Cyclonus recounted the tale of Galvatrons past, sadly it was only slightly embellished "the plasma made him stronger, sure, but they couldn't control him when he had his breakdowns now"

"But… The Autobots wouldn't! Optimus would never!" Raf already argued his story, and Cyclonus realised he'd need to give leeway in order to get more trust out of this organic.

"I doubt he would've IF he knew about it" Cyclonus quietly hummed, he caught Raf looking at Galvatron concerned, how touching, he mentally sneered to himself.

"Oh…" Raf seemed to buy into it quickly, trust no doubt bolstered by having his small organic life fragging saved.

"That's how we met" Cyclonus leaned his head back, looking to the ceiling "Got told all about some 'wild barbarian' that'd attacked and supposedly killed so many in a vicious fury! It worried a lot of mecha, then I found him while transporting some goods past the Rust Sea! Starved for energy and cowering in a cave covered in gunk"

"Killed!?" Raf squeaked as he spoke but Cyclonus ignored him and continued.

"I took him with me and helped him get back on his pede's. It took so long for him to trust anyone but when we removed the chains and restraints over his wrists and neck supports he trusted us more. Barely any memory of what had happened, but clearly had some strange hallucinations, muttered something about his empire of ash and a devil at the planet's core… Seems he barely remembers anything from his breakdowns" Cyclonus nodded quietly, finishing up his story.

It was mostly true.  
Except the plasma incident was more a somewhat deliberate accident, Galvatron had been fighting Autobots, keeping them away from his home, and one threw him into a pit of plasma, hoping for him to die in it. They had left him there, alive and burning and all the while plasma ate away at his armour and seeped a little into his cranial chamber causing the damage.  
Some Autobots HAD tried to use him as a weapon, twist his awry perception and stressed, desperate thoughts to usher him in the direction of their needs with sweet manipulative words spoken carefully.

But the moment panic set in and he kicked off they were ever so quick to plaster the whole 'barbarian monster' schtick onto him.

Cyclonus had deliberately set out to find him and had done.  
Bringing him back and personally helping him to get back on his pede's with Scourge's help.

It was a struggle, yes.  
But barbarian? Monster?  
No, just different.  
And that's what no one liked.  
What no one wanted to bother with.  
So much easier to shout 'violent monster' than to acknowledge a problem.

The human was quiet, he'd come out from behind Cyclonus now, no longer worried about Galvatron suddenly popping back up and attempting to squish him again.

"Is it always… like that?" He asked quietly, no doubt concerned about a repeat incident.

"Usually, anger seems to be the default but he has descended into bouts of unreasonable fear and terror before. People only seem to remember the angry times though, rather _conveniently_ " Cyclonus nodded.

It had terrified him too the first time that had happened, he'd expected anger like before but was very… unsettled at the sudden shift into a wailing shaking mess tucked away in the corner, shrieking in fear at unknown horrors.

"Well he hasn't dented his helm too badly, but I'll keep an optic on him when he reboots just to make sure" Cyclonus quickly let go of Galvatrons helm having had it in his lap this entire time.

"So… I… what do you even do when something like that happens?" Raf stood back as Cyclonus got up and stretched, feeling his back cables creak with the movement.

"Hm? Well, it hasn't happened for a long time" Cyclonus rubbed his chin thinking of how they'd remarkably avoided incidents on Cybertron, "It's best not to, ah, get in the way, unless he's going to hurt someone else, or, worryingly often, hurt himself… I usually just make sure to not overdo it with him around or help him avoid it, it was just the crash and sudden shift of everything that must've set it off after it all dawned on him… The best way to avoid it though is to just… well, keep him relaxed which is remarkably easy if you're not a compassionless pile of scrap"

"Oh… Guess we were lucky nothing happened while Jack was here yesterday huh?" Raf tried a weak smile but Cyclonus could still read the worry on its face.  
Typical.

"Indeed" He was sure some distaste entered his voice at that name.

"Heh, he's just worried, just, I remember the day our friends left…" Raf sighed "It was because the war's over, and they went to rebuild… so there isn't that much of a reason to not believe you no longer being affiliated, it's just a little hard when you remember getting chased and threatened by them a lot" Raf tried indirectly apologising for his friend's behaviour.

"Likewise, I hope you understand why we do not exactly trust going to anywhere…" He gestured to one of the symbols on a bit of machinery "Autobot controlled"

Raf stared at the Autobot symbol silently for a while, eyes not moving from it as he nodded, accepting Cyclonus's words.

Raf had decided to wait to say what he had apparently come to say for when 'Shockdrive' woke up.  
Though he had to wait for Cyclonus to be finished first…

"WHAT THE FLYING FRAG DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING HITTING YOUR HELM LIKE THAT!? DID YOU NOT WORRY ME ENOUGH THE TIME I FOUND OUT YOU'D BEEN STOOD IN THE ENGINE ROOM FOR ALMOST AN ENTIRE CYCLE DOING NOTHING BUT REPEATEDLY SMACKING YOUR FACEPLATES AGAINST THE WALL!? DID YOU!? DID YOU!?"


	16. Getting to Business

Raf had been polite merely claiming he had walked in just as the 'episode' was over after spying embarrassment on Galvatron's face and giving a gentle smile when that seemed to make him relax.

Cyclonus supposed he could tolerate this human, well, compared to the others.

Eventually, however, Raf finally went to give them whatever news it was he had.

"So I've been speaking to Fowler and Unit:E" Cyclonus frowned slightly, any mention of this unit had him worried, "They're also… suspicious of your story BUT have decided that seeing as you haven't 'acted out' and know me more, just, I'll be in charge of this place… and you… BUT I know that you won't enjoy that so don't worry I don't exactly intend to 'order' you about. Just keep an eye on you to make sure everything's fine…"

"And if it's not?" Cyclonus couldn't just let him leave it at that.

"Well… I have a panic number to call and that'll send an immediate military strike here BUT I don't plan on using it!" He even held up his fleshy servos as if that'd prove his point "BUT they also want Jack to be my 'assistant'" He perked up at the last word "Make a change from being the 'kid' of the group" He grinned at them.

Cyclonus quickly understood some of his disgruntled behaviour at being somewhat 'ignored' the previous night.

"Can we rebuild our ship?" Galvatron thankfully followed up with a question.

"Yes Shockdrive, that's fine and Fowler's somewhat eager to help you off the planet, so if you can tell me what kind of things you need and we can see what we can get in for you" Raf nodded.

"Well there are a few abandoned machines here, we can make a start with those I'm assuming?" Cyclonus folded his arms, nodding his head in the direction of the hangar door.

Outside there were several vehicles left lying about, old, dirty and probably a bit useless.

So good for spare parts.

Raf seemed to have no objections to that but felt the need to point out his own vehicle amongst the selection; so they would avoid 'scrapping' it.

Cyclonus felt a frown build up in his faceplates but he stopped it.

It was a bright yellow wheeled vehicle.

A "VW beetle" as Raf described it; or "Aaww such an adorable little thing" as Galvatron promptly put it after.

The garish shade of yellow was one of bad memories for Cyclonus and he quickly walked away grabbing a vehicle from the other end of the site.

He'd only picked up one vehicle in each hand, upon returning he'd found Galvatron had piled as many as possible into his arms and could barely see over what he had collected.

Good to see he was back to his old self.

Ridiculousness and all.

They entered the hangar where they'd shoved as much as possible of their ship.

Most of it was hanging outside of the shoddy earth building anyway and had large sheets of fabric thrown over the top to protect it from interlopers and weather.

With a loud clatter, they dropped the vehicles before their ship and crossed their arms.

Raf occupied a small space between them.

"So, uh…" Galvatron looked at Cyclonus "Where do we start"

Cyclonus turned to look back at Galvatron.

Then to the ship.

Then at Raf between them.

Then back at Galvatron.

"I have no idea" he admitted.


End file.
